I wowed my mom by showing her how to get Overdrive books to open in any Adobe ID authorized app you want, rather than just the Overdrive app. I decided to check Freading, to see if they had fixed their "will only open in the Freading app" problem. Sadly they still don't seem to think its a problem, because it's still not fixed. Argh. I wish my local public library used Overdrive instead.

After several back-and-forth emails with Freading's support people in the past couple days, I think I've figured out what happened and why I haven't been able to download any e-books.

Freading recently did a site and app upgrade. From what I can tell, part of that "upgrade" involved making the Freading app the absolutely only way that you can read Freading e-books on mobile devices. Because I didn't have the Freading app installed, the website couldn't find anything to connect with, so it couldn't download and open any e-books.

I have a few choices. 1) I can throw my hands up in the air and stop using Freading, which I don't really want to do. 2) I can adapt to using the Freading app and hope it has all the features I've become accustomed to in Mantano Reader. I'd rather not have to do this, but if I want to read Freading books on my tablet I don't really have a choice right now. 3) I can use this as encouragement to figure out how to download Freading books onto my computer and transfer them to my Simple Touch.

Since one of the main reasons I upgraded Mantano Reader Lite was so that I could use Freading e-books, I'm kind of bummed. I suppose I'll give option 2 a try tonight, since I'm still reading A Lot Like a Lady on my Simple Touch. The recent negative reviews of the Freading app kind of worry me, though.

ETA: And now they're telling me that I'm free to read on any reading app I'd like, as long as it's compatible with their files. Which are EPUB and PDF, both of which Mantano Reader can open. Do they not understand that the Freading site is refusing to communicate with anything but the Freading app? I give up.

My library's Freading e-book checkout service just picked up lots of Piers Anthony and Andre Norton books. I haven't read either of those authors since I was a teen. I'll have to try a trip down reading memory lane sometime, and hope it's not riddled with potholes.

They also changed their look and now have *gasp* keyword searching. I am cautiously excited.

First, a general Freading update: the "reduced token cost" continues, even after your checkout expires, meaning that, if I hadn't been able to finish The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in two weeks, I could check it out again for 0 tokens. Cool.

Now, for this book. Freading's "Juvenile fiction" section includes both middle grade and young adult books, so I wasn't sure where this fell when I checked it out. It's definitely middle grade.

Some things so far:

• It's a "sucked into a computer game" story. Yay!
• It's set in South Africa.
• The heroine (who's 12, I think) has a boyfriend who's a jerk. He loudly points out and laughs at a zit she feels self-conscious about. Instead of telling him to get lost, she agrees to help him with an assignment. Here's hoping she eventually develops a spine.
• Tammy, the heroine, thinks about how she hates viruses. She says that having the Internet makes her work safer from viruses (um, how?), but she hates the necessity of anti-virus software and so hasn't updated it in a while. Uh...
• The book is illustrated. I've only come across one illustration so far, and it looks like something from a superhero comic, as interpreted by a coloring book illustrator.

Yay! I called up my public library, they helped update my library card, and I can now get into Freading and check out books. I only get 5 tokens a week, so I don't expect to be checking out much, but it does open up my reading options a little.

My first checkout: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Yasutaka Tsutsui

I've wanted to read it for a while, and, wow, the cover is so pretty on my tablet that it almost hurts. It cost me 2 tokens, and, since I had already authorized Mantano Reader with Adobe Digital Editions, was no trouble at all to open up on my tablet.

At some point, I'll figure out how to load Freading e-books onto my Nook, but I'm fine with using my tablet at the moment.